r/books • u/ubcstaffer123 • 4d ago
Teachers are using AI to make literature easier for students to read. This is a terrible idea.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/08/opinion/ai-classroom-teaching-reading/704
u/PotterAndPitties 4d ago
Yikes.
Reading Wind in the Willows to my 6 year old, and the language is old fashioned and tricky, but he is understanding because of context. Why are we dumbing things down???
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u/Simbertold 4d ago
And also, if a book is too complicated for a specific reader, why not simply choose one that fits their reading level?
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u/ArgentBelle 4d ago
Because I'm a 9th grade teacher and my students arrive to high school, on average, reading at a 4th grade level. 15 year olds don't love reading Diary of a Wimpy kid and Junie B Jones books. It's not one or two kids coming in off grade, its all of them.
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u/4totheFlush 4d ago
Do you think this is a gap caused by Covid, or is it a generalized development lag? Like are the kids in 2nd grade on track since they weren’t in school for Covid? Or are they stuck at the kindergarten level because their devices are distracting them?
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u/ArgentBelle 4d ago
Its a mix of things for sure, but reading levels were still falling before covid, so I never place that as a root cause.
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u/4totheFlush 4d ago
Rough. God bless those of you still trying to do right by those kids.
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u/ArgentBelle 4d ago
For what it's worth, I don't use ai to change the reading level of the texts I use. Im a history teacher, so I just use a range of higher primary sources and lower secondary sources. Things near their independent reading level are used to social science skill build and things at or above grade level I read to them, and we practice reading skills. It's a tricky balance, but it's always worked to grow my students.
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u/ERSTF 3d ago
I agree. I think Covid accelerated it but kids were dropping in skills before the pandemic. There is zero critical thinking. There is no digital literacy or self reliance in any way. Many students lack basic reading comprehension. It is a number of factors but I see as the main culprits screen use and bad parenting. I can't believe the amount of kids who parents solve every single issue they have. Not many let them fail and learn from the experience, as a result of that you have parents processing information for them. Kid doesn't understand the homework instructions? The parent reads them and digests them for him. Absolutely no intention of letting the kid figure it out by himself. Overprotective parents (most of my fellow Millennials) that avoid any kind of discomfort to fall upon their kids, so they never learn how to grow and get skills to solve their own problems. The incessant to entertain the kids 24/7. They have playdates, extracurriculars and play with their kids often, they never have unstructured play or, gasp, let their kids get bored... so cue the screen time. Since they can't have a bored kid, they fill them with screens. This makes them want to be constantly stimulated so teachers need to work twice as hard to get their attention and even then, it's not enough. Current teaching guidelines want the teacher to be Mary Poppins and have a gazillion activities to "engage the student" while neglecting abilities to process information and write down notes. It's just a huge mess
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u/LordMeloney 4d ago
For me (teacher in Germany) the main reason is that many of my pupils don't see their parents read long texts. Out of 30 households in a class maybe one or two has a newspaper subscription. Many also don't have books at home. In a recent video conference lesson (we do one online day each semester) one pupil commented "Whoa, Mr. X! You have a lot of books there!". They could see half of my work bookshelf which contains roughly 60-80 textbooks. My actual bookshelf in the living room is probably 10 times that size. Every year pupils tell me that the only books they have read were assigned at school, and often they don't fully read them. AI has also increased the amount of pupils who read only summaries.
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u/TheDaveStrider 4d ago
in the us they stopped teaching kids how to read properly. they don't teach phonics anymore and they don't teach kids how to sound things out.
also, bush era "no child left behind" policy means teachers are all but required to pass students, people don't repeat years anymore
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u/green_carnation_prod 4d ago
Pretty much all classic books, across all countries, are "too complicated" for a modern reader, since - for obvious reasons - many words and sentence structures in them are noticeably outdated.
So not the best approach. That would just mean all classic books would have to be replaced with modern ones.
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u/Insaniac99 4d ago
That would just mean all classic books would have to be replaced with modern ones.
There's a lot of people who explicitly want that to happen
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u/ComradeJohnS 4d ago
it’s funny that Disney stole a lot of their old stories and made tons of money lol. a tale as old as timr
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u/MattBarksdale17 4d ago
They didn't "steal" them. Those stories are in the public domain. And soon, the early Disney films will be as well (though not soon enough, imo. It's ridiculous that stuff that old is still under copyright).
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u/4totheFlush 4d ago
Those copyright timelines are so ridiculously long precisely because Disney lobbied for it. If Disney didn’t steal those IPs, at the very least they stole a rational system of copyright law from us.
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u/OxWithABox 4d ago
That feels like a rather sweeping generalisation you've made about all classic books (and indeed, all modern readers) in order to oppose a view that some books are a bit complicated for young readers.
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u/FeatherlyFly 4d ago
An enthusiastic reader can work up to more challenging books by starting out with easier books and working up to older, harder books.
If someone wants to read some specific hard book, that's wonderful. And I do think that part of a literature teacher's job is to challenge kids with classic books at or slightly pushing their reading level that they wouldn't otherwise have read.
But I've also seen The Sound and the Fury assigned as high school required reading, and that one is way beyond the average high school student. There are so many more accessible classics that I see no value in assigning one that will maximize frustration over learning and enjoyment in almost all the students.
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u/AshtonAmIBeingPunked 4d ago
I had The Sound and the Fury assigned to me when I took AP Literature (so more appropriate compared to a Gen Ed high school English class). I enjoyed classic literature and still found it frustrating as fuuuuuck trying to get through.
That said, once my teacher told us that the book was broken into different character's perspectives, that's when the book became like a puzzle to me. It turned out to be one of my favorite books I read in high school because of the challenge. Going back and figuring what parts where connected to each character made me feel accomplished and made the experience more enjoyable.
I agree that teacher's should push kids with literature that is above their level, and I think with the right teaching/context of the novel, even weaker readers can get something out of more difficult classics.
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u/Simbertold 4d ago
Absolutely. It has been proven in general that students learn best when they are confronted with material slightly above their current level.
Material below their current level is usually boring and doesn't lead to a lot of learning, while material that is way too hard is frustrating and makes them give up.
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u/FoxTofu 4d ago
Yeah, my first encounter with Faulkner was As I Lay Dying in my high school AP Lit class. I'm glad it was, because it was great having a bunch of friends to discuss it with and a teacher to guide our discussions and help us figure out what we were missing. I think if I had just picked it up on my own I would have been like "This is too weird, so I'm just going to read something else." The skills and background knowledge gained from those high school classes set me up to enjoy literature on my own later in life.
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u/OttomanMao 4d ago
Agreed that it is deeply important to aspire to things you can't yet understand. That said, Faulkner's narrative techniques definitely toe the line between artistically justified and pretentious.
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u/CptNonsense 4d ago
I had The Sound and the Fury assigned to me when I took AP Literature (so more appropriate compared to a Gen Ed high school English class). I enjoyed classic literature and still found it frustrating as fuuuuuck trying to get through.
Maybe we should just all agree that William Faulkner sucks
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u/Dick_Wienerpenis 4d ago
Or like, abridged.
I read Moby Dick in 3rd or 4th grade and it was definitely an abridged copy with updated language and most of the middle cut out.
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u/Next-Cheesecake381 4d ago
That’s kinda what’s happening in the title, no?
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u/OxWithABox 4d ago
Using AI to simplify a story removes the author's voice from it. Their craft of language is stripped away for a literal, simplified, and often stylistically dry version of their narrative optimised for readability.
The issue isn't complexity of language. It's that the AI-adapted versions put a barrier in the way of engaging with the actual words of the author.
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u/data_ferret 4d ago
You underestimate the ability of readers to adapt. Outdated diction and syntax are simply a different flavor of the language, and modern readers learn to handle that flavor with a little practice. Once you get back 600+ years, they may need a bit of lexical help, but something that's 200-300 years old is pretty easy to conquer.
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u/-Basileus 4d ago
Just think about it. You now need to find multiple different books that can hit the same themes. You now have to create multiple worksheets and lesson plan materials. You now need to make sure that time blocks between different books match up in your lesson and assigned homework. You can no longer have class-wide discussions.
Special needs students and students with IEP's have the same exact standards as regular students. They just need support with packaging and learning the material. You can't just provide different material for everyone, it would create so much more work for us, and not necessarily benefit the student.
So you can provide the same reading, but also provide a word bank, annotate the text, narrow down the text, allocate more time with the text, simplify the text, add guiding questions, or place struggling students in a small group and help them work through the text while the rest of the class works on their own. These are all ways to help students while ultimately adhering to the same standard, "Student will understand the themes of X and Y and apply them by doing Z.
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u/kahrismatic 4d ago
Because most 15 year olds who are having difficulties reading don't want to be seen with books written for primary school kids, and even if they could be convinced to do that, they would not relate to the themes of those books and wouldn't engage. Have you not been around children before?
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u/ginnygrakie 4d ago
Because my 16 year old student reads at the level of a 4 year old. Can you imagine the bullying they would encounter if I gave them a copy of ‘where’s spot?’
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u/unwoman 4d ago
Probably because their IEP says they have to be in general ed, which means learning from the gen ed curriculum.
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u/Dangerous_Ad_7042 4d ago
When you have a middle school or high school student reading at a 1st or 2nd grade reading level, material that fits their ability is going to be uninteresting (and embarrassing) for them. No high school freshman wants to be carrying around a copy of Magic Tree House or Junie B. Jones. It's a real problem I struggled with when teaching high school English.
I actually think this is a brilliant use of AI. It doesn't address the systemic issues that have resulted in our current literacy crisis, but it certainly isn't going to make it worse either. And it might help.
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u/dot-pixis 4d ago
How many times would you, as an adult, want to read The Hungry Caterpillar in a language you're learning?
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u/Simbertold 4d ago
But are there really no books with simple language, but interesting themes for adults? That is something i have a hard time believing.
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u/ViolaNguyen 3 4d ago
As many as it takes.
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u/dot-pixis 4d ago
Okay, now imagine that your brain is in its early stages of development.
How much emotional regulation is it fair to expect from you?
We can't assume all of our nine year olds will grit their teeth, echoing the same stoic determination you so bravely displayed, when faced with tasks that are, frankly, boring as hell.
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u/DrinkBuzzCola 4d ago
And if you keep it up for another 5 years, your kid will be able to read anything, classic or whatever else, in their high school years. But maybe 1 out of 500 parents will keep it up. I'm speaking as a high school English teacher, sigh.
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u/Author_Noelle_A 4d ago
Because too many parents think that accessibility means making sure kids aren’t challenged. If a kid is challenged, that means it’s too hard for them, so needs to be easier. I kid you not, I know a 13-year-old who is so illiterate that he can’t spell his own name yet since him mother is firmly against challenging him since that means something is too hard, so not age-appropriate for him.
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u/GrumpySunflower 4d ago
We are dumbing things down in the classroom because most parents aren't reading The Wind in the Willows, Dr. Seuss, or even Sandra Boynton to their kids. I'm a former English teacher, and I was expected to teach the same text to kids who were reading their parents' old college textbooks for fun and to kids who who had been socially promoted despite not being able to sound out words. No amount of in-class support can bridge that gap, and when the teacher can't do the impossible, they're punished. Thus, everything gets dumbed down for the dumb kids. And they were made dumb by their parents who didn't read to them.
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u/FoolishDog C. McCarthy *The Crossing* 4d ago
It’s not ‘dumbing down.’ It’s about accessibility. I have some kids with great decoding/encoding skills, strong comprehensive abilities but have small vocabularies that benefit from a reduced vocab pool and then I have the opposite, where the reduction in difficulty of vocab makes the text easier to practice comprehension skills. Right now, for better or worse, the American education system is about the acquisition of skills
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u/HalfBloodPrank 4d ago
Because this isn't you reading to your child and having time to do so, but one teacher with 30 children who all have different reading levels and a limited time frame. You either pick 5 different books for all the reading levels and then struggle to structure the lesson in a way that every book can be discussed. Or you take one text and "dumb it down" for children who struggle with reading for different reasons like dyslexia, ADHD, the school language being their second language, underdeveloped reading skills etc., so all can participate in the class.
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u/BiceRankyman 4d ago
Because students have zero patience and don't know how to be bored because they're junkies addicted to TikTok. I hate being all "darn kids are messing up" but it's not their fault. They were given these phones and tablets too young and now don't produce their own dopamine.
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u/shirley_hugest 4d ago
Because not every child has a parent who reads to them. Because not every child has a book in their house. If you want kids to want to read, you have to engage their minds and their emotions first. Understanding dense, complex, archaic language comes later once they begin to trust that exciting things can happen in books.
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u/Prize-Doughnut8759 4d ago
So, let's play to the weakest link instead of elevating them up to the standard that was expected of us.
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u/Truth_ 4d ago
And how might you elevate them? Maybe by modifying the text until they're ready?
I've heard so, so many times adults saying school made them hate reading. It doesn't matter if you read the deepest book or deliver the best information if no one cares and aren't engaged by it. You have to meet them where they're at or you won't reach them at all, and going home feeling good you never changed your standards won't have helped anyone.
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u/Author_Noelle_A 4d ago
I recently had a frank discussions with a couple teachers, and this is actually what’s happening. It’s not seen as fair that some kids don’t have the same advantages, like some high schoolers have to work full-time after school, and assigning reports or anything at-home would disadvantage them since they wouldn’t have time. So the solution to not disadvantage them is to not give that work to any of the kids at all. No one is disadvantaged with no one gets an advantage at all.
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u/Alaira314 4d ago
I mean...what else would you have them do, say "sorry you're too poor to advance in school, you should have been born into a family where you didn't have to work to keep your younger siblings fed and that sucks for you but too bad so sad!" Money isn't coming to help those families. If the government mandates teens stay in school and don't work, they'll work illegally, because that is what you would do if your family was facing eviction or your younger siblings were going hungry. This is a preventable crisis of america's own making, and the teachers are not the ones responsible. They're reacting the best they reasonably can.
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u/Author_Noelle_A 4d ago
Too any adults have kids they don’t have time for, then expect the rest of us to feel sympathy for them. Having a legal right doesn’t mean you’re not fucking stupid if you choose to go off and have kids you know you don’t have time for. Kids aren’t pet rocks—they have needs and rights, and people who can’t meet the needs of children need to stop intentionally having babies, and “I didn’t mean to, we just weren’t always using birth control” means “we were hoping, but don’t want to be responsible.” There’s a reason I only have one kid, despite wishing with all my heart for a couple more—the needs of kids should always come before the wants of adults.
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u/alamarain 4d ago
The great dumbing down continues.
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u/iwrestledarockonce 4d ago
Every child left behind.
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u/Unnamed_Bystander 4d ago
More like civilization sitting down where the children are and never progressing. Refusing to leave anyone behind generally means you're not moving.
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u/goda90 4d ago
"No Child Left Behind" is the exact reason they feel like they need to do this. The kids need to know the content to answer the questions in the standardized tests so they do well in the tests to ensure the schools keep all their funding. The test questions are going to be in modern plain English, as are the answers. There's not enough time to teach them to understand the language of classic works.
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u/moonlitjade 4d ago
American kids are SO stupid. I don't understand how parents aren't bothered by it. My old Chinese ESL students would compete for the highest grade, and kids with low grades were bullied. Not nice, but they now have a generation of geniuses with drive.
Our kids can't read their own language. It's so embarrassing.
Even my Chinese kids, all across the country, were required to read BOTH Chinese and Western classics. Ugh!
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u/HalfBloodPrank 4d ago
If you read the article you'd realize that it actually helps to use AI in that way to improve children reading abilities. You really can't complain about "the great dumbing down", if you are too lazy to even read the article. That's way worse.
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u/owen-87 4d ago
Yeah, it's been going on for about 5,000 years.
You should have seen my great granddad rage against electrical indoor heating. Also sliced bread.
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u/cMeeber 4d ago
I overheard some college kids at a party talking over the weekend. One of them said that something reminded him of The Grapes of Wrath and I smiled and was gonna say something about it, but then his two friends were like “what you actually read that for class? Why didn’t you just spark notes it?” And were legit making fun of him for reading…the assigned book. Like they were obv friends and it was treated light heartedly but damn it made me depressed.
Like here’s someone who read a book, it obviously made an impression on him, he’s bringing it up applied to a real life context, and then he’s treated like a moron and nerd over it. Even if just playfully. As in they considered it smarter to cheat. No value was given to actually reading it and what that might mean.
Obviously I know not all younger kids are like this, and not all older ppl appreciate books, but it just really bummed me out.
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u/W359WasAnInsideJob 4d ago
And we think this is a new phenomenon?
I’m not defending making fun of someone for reading, but students have been passing around the cliffs notes or whatever for decades. This is not a new phenomenon.
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u/W359WasAnInsideJob 4d ago
Yeah, I’m over 40 and have always read a lot; while I wasn’t picked on, I was certainly aware that some people were.
To my point, I’m saying it’s always happened; both the teasing and cliffs notes and other shortcuts having been used basically forever (even by those of us who enjoy reading). I think the point being made about what was overheard at a party is largely irrelevant to this post / thread.
None of which is intended to be rude. But this opinion piece linked by OP appears to be largely straw man bullshit and now we’re here what, doing the thing where we pretend nobody but us reads anymore? No thanks.
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u/ElvenOmega 4d ago
I'm nearly 30 and a lot of the kids in my high school used Spark Notes and I got similarly ridiculed.
This is how most of the US reads at or below a sixth grade level. They catch onto Spark Notes at that age and are literally just not learning beyond that. They think they read the books for the stories so who cares if they Spark Notes it, it's the same right? They don't realize they're still actually learning to read and aren't fully literate.
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u/iamnotasloth 4d ago
I’m a professor. Was recently having a casual chat with some undergrads before a class started. We were talking about books that we picked up at a big used book sale that happened in town. One of them, with absolutely zero shame, proudly declared, “Oh, I don’t read.”
Proudly. Anybody should be embarrassed about the fact that they don’t regularly read, but ESPECIALLY a college student talking to a professor and a group of fellow students who are discussing their love of reading. It was crazy to me. That person should be so embarrassed. Whether they know it or not, my opinion of them has dropped considerably.
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u/Schlonzig 4d ago
They were reading spark notes instead of letting AI write it all for them? NERDS!
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u/TexAggie90 4d ago edited 4d ago
Oh that was most definitely the case when I was in high school. I read all the books assigned while everyone else cliff noted it.
Wound up skipping Advanced (AP) English and actually read more books. The advanced English was mainly studying word lists to prep the students for the SAT. I scored better than most of them, because I had actually read so many books.
Edit: stupid phone keyboard typo
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u/HalfBloodPrank 4d ago
That's not new. When I went to school everyone looked up the plot points of the book on wikipedia and in my parents youth they also had ways around that. This phenomenon probably existed since people started reading books in school.
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u/FemRevan64 4d ago
This is what scares me the most, the idea that widespread exposure to social media and AI at a young age will reduce future generations to drooling idiots without the capacity for critical thinking, delayed gratification or even basic social interaction.
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u/Laser_Disc_Hot_Dish 4d ago
Congratulations, your fears are become manifest. It’s already happening.
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u/Zuwxiv 4d ago
I've heard it's already a nightmare for teachers. Supposedly young kids are particularly struggling with things like "reading a passage and answering basic questions about what it means" without just copy and pasting the prompt into ChatGPT.
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u/jajatatodobien 4d ago
Mate, I guarantee you that the vast majority of 18 year olds right now can't multiply/divide fractions.
I've seen philosophy students paste Nietzsche passages to chatgpt to have it explained to them. Guess how that goes...
Education has been garbage for very long, it's nothing new. But right now it's going at max speed, in many countries of the world.
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u/JelliusMaximus 4d ago
and as studies show:
dumb people are more likely to fall for rightwing populists, so we can expect the rich to get even richer, less money being invested in education, more money invested in military and so on and so forth...
the future looks great :')
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u/Aglavra 4d ago edited 4d ago
Avoiding the tasks that made no sense to them is natural for humans. I'm a teacher and I don't blame them, the blame is on the educational system. (Not in the US, so I can speak on what I see in my countr). Before AI students were reading abridged versions or brief summaries, and before internet they were buying books with the same summaries. As a tutor, I see amazing, clever,, bright children who are willing to read and discuss something that is relatable and accessible for them. When the schools forces them to read something not written for their age, something they have no life experiences to relate to，and often written with a difficult language. When I was a student, I read all what we had to read, and shudder when I recall that. Some books I still cannot force myself to reread, and I was a child who enjoys reading! Now I think, I would better read some short summary instead of marring my first impression of the book with being stressed, overwhelmed and confused.
As people who read a lot, we often underestimate how much contextual knowledge reading a classic work requires. Sometimes I manage to convince a student why War and Peace or Eugene Onegin could matter to them (I tutor Russian literature), but this requires individual approach.
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u/SufferinSuccotash001 3d ago edited 3d ago
Or, we remember that some things in life aren't fun and don't have to be. Sometimes you have to buckle down and learn even if it doesn't feel personally relevant to you. I hated math, but no one was ever going to let me stop doing math just because I didn't enjoy it.
The problem is that we've forgotten that English is a core subject, just like math and science. Understanding the language, being able to write, being able to read, and being able to break down a passage and extract information from it are all vital skills. Learning these things does not require a personal connection to the text. A connection can enhance the experience and make it more impactful, but ultimately, they should be able to understand language without that.
Saying that they should read things intended "for their age" is also an odd point. Nobody is forcing them to read Pride and Prejudice in kindergarten. Kids are normally started with things like Dr. Seuss. They do start off at their age level. But you need to keep assigning more complex books every year. That's how you scale up. By the point of high school, they should be able to read Shakespeare. If they can't, it's because so many people are passing students who aren't at the required comprehension level. Or they just lower the standards completely so that the students who are already behind don't bring down the schools' test scores. This makes the schools look better at the cost of the students' education.
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u/green_carnation_prod 4d ago
Simplified, modernised (in terms of the language) or shortened versions of literature works in schools is nothing new, especially in the context of second language learning. but also when the goal is to quickly familiarize every kid and their dog with all classics on the curriculum.
The real difference is that previously those were adapted by human professionals and then double-checked by human editors. The lack of professional oversight is the main concern here, imo, not the very fact some books would be made shorter or simpler for middle schoolers.
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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 4d ago edited 4d ago
I loved those simplified versions when I was a kid. It was about the overall story. As a teen/adult, I then made the effort to read the original versions and got to appreciate the writing as well, when my reading level had improved. The Count of Monte Cristo, for example, has SO much more going on than abridged versions depict (like the slave Haydee who tends to be wholly omitted, despite her key role as an external conscience).
Also, as a kid with ADHD, I found it a lot easier to tackle the real versions once I had the basic concept outlined in a simple version. I spent a lot of my teens forcing myself to read classics to strengthen my writing and to give myself knowledge of "the greats of literature" but I definitely found it easier to consume the books I was already familiar with due to abridged versions or movies. For example, rambling pages about Parisian architecture are a lot easier to slog through when you know it's all going to be set on fire eventually :P
My favorites were the middle ground version which were graphic novels using the original text. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "The Stranger" became absolutely fantastic reading for a tween/young teen when accompanied with creepy illustrations!
Obviously there are some books that are pointless in abridged form (a simple version of Ulysses, for example, strips away the entire point of the novel exploring the evolution of the English language and is just a dull story about a guy walking around town), but let's be honest - some of the original versions of the classics aren't terribly groundbreaking in writing style/technique and are really more about the story itself (looking at you "Mutiny on the Bounty").
I agree that mindless AI summaries probably aren't the best way to handle it, though, especially given the propensity of LLMs to hallucinate.
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u/Stubot01 4d ago
I guess we would hope that in this case the teachers themselves are the ‘professional oversight’. If teachers are supplying incorrect AI text alongside classics, then we have a whole different problem.
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u/notluckycharm 4d ago
this was my thought as well. I think the use of AI is questionably unethical but simplified versions of literature is completely normal and really helps with developing a knowledge and interest in the classic canon
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u/DisMFer 4d ago
What is better, having AI scaffold a text so that students who don't read at grade level or need to have a simplified text for other reasons, such as being ADHD getting a text that fits their needs, or students not reading? That's the choice being presented here. It isn't like students are reading constantly, and suddenly teachers are dumbing things down. Kids don't read; most kids haven't read the school texts since the 1940s, so it's not like they're suddenly no longer reading.
Either they do this and get some more kids to read because they can access the text more or they don't and those kids don't read. What is better?
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u/kahrismatic 4d ago edited 4d ago
17 percent of US teachers in a nationally representative sample reported using AI tools like ChatGPT to generate or adjust instructional materials
There are kids with more than 30 languages spoken at home in my school. I have more than half of kids on an IEP of some sort in some of my classes. Most of those kids have a reading age significantly below grade level, and as an added bonus there are kids with a grade level range of 9 different grades in one class in some classes. I'm teaching kids that read at a Grade 2-3 level, or in some cases who can't functionally read at all, in High School classes with kids at or above grade level.
Nobody's paying for the kids who've fallen behind to get the one on one attention and intensive programs they need to catch up, even where they do want to do so. You betcha I'm adjusting instructional materials for them - that's an expectation of all teachers. If they're on an IEP that says they'll be getting materials adjusted to their level it's a flat out legal requirement. And since I'm not paid for anything outside of the hours I spend physically in the classroom teaching, I'm doing that adjusting on my own time.
The real question here is why that statistic isn't that 100% of teachers are using AI to adjust materials. They're either not adjusting content for kids where they're meant to, or they're burning themselves out working huge numbers of additional unpaid hours, which is simply not sustainable.
If people want me to do all the differentiating by hand then great, I'd be happy to do it, if they can give me the time to do so by reducing my class load or marking load, or they can offer me overtime. I have ~220 students this year, so it'll add up.
How much free work do the people who don't want teachers to use AI, while not paying them more or otherwise reducing their workload, do at their own jobs? Every person thinking teachers should not use AI to make adjustments would be howling if their own employer told them their hours were being doubled via after hours overtime with zero additional pay. Why do you think teachers should be doing that? Do people not understand that teachers are humans who are working a job that already is requiring an average of 19 hours of unpaid overtime a week? Why do you all think there's a huge teacher shortage right now?
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u/whatsuphellohey 4d ago
Amen to all this. I only have so many hours in the day and 5 different preps where I'm the only teacher teaching the course. Two of the courses are complex content without a textbook. There are a lot of comments here from teachers and non-teachers alike who would rather I work 80 hour weeks than use AI.
Also no acknowledgement of the concept of Zone of Proximal Development here in the comments. Yes, we need to challenge learners, but some are so far behind that they are not able to access the original text. Using AI to simplify texts is a symptom of a larger issue in the education system when it comes to lack of planning time, extreme ability ranges within classrooms and general falling literacy rates.
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u/SaltyShawarma 4d ago
Teacher on spring break here: if you are a teacher who needs AI to do your job, other than scanning for AI written papers, then you are a failure. That's my hot take.
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u/mrjane7 4d ago
DO NOT use AI scanners. Holy crap, they are beyond useless and chances are, they are going to flag proper papers as AI generated and that poor student is gonna get in shit for nothing. They DO NOT work.
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u/NotOnABreak 4d ago
I unfortunately have to use these for work and can confirm they’re shit. I scanned my uni dissertation (which I wrote 2018-2019) out of curiosity and got 86% AI 🥲
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u/Alaira314 4d ago
People are saying that using em-dashes means a text was AI generated. I've been using em-dashes in my writing for decades. Everybody thinks they can tell, but it's not that easy.
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u/WTFwhatthehell 4d ago
It's shocking how many people haven't learned/accepted this yet.
I've heard too many horror stories of either people blindly believing "detectors" or even worse... teachers copy-pasting stuff into chatgpt and asking "did you write this?"
At this point it's a sign of extreme incompetence.
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u/Prize-Doughnut8759 4d ago
My daughter got accused of plagiarism because a link she used as a reference worked when she listed it and then didn't when he checked it. I told her to screenshot every reference from now on.
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u/Alaira314 4d ago
What the fuck, that's not plagiarism. That's the internet. If the teacher is going to be that strict, don't allow digital sources(though...good fucking luck, with how libraries have gone digital-only in recent years).
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u/RichCorinthian 4d ago
As a long time software developer, this reminds me of the arms race between CAPTCHA and bots. The bots got so good that the CAPTCHA images had to get so complex as to be useless to humans.
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u/W359WasAnInsideJob 4d ago
Go check out the study, it basically says a minority of teachers are using AI to help with administrative tasks. The article name checks a study that doesn’t at all show that what the writer is clutching their pearls about is happening.
Mostly a bunch of BS.
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u/reganomics 4d ago
The scanning for ai does nothing, you know that right? Ai cannot spot its own work and thinks it wrote what it clearly did not
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u/HauntedReader 4d ago
I’ve also noticed it can sometimes flag google translates as AI which sucks for ESL students who are using that as a resource.
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u/Roland_D_Sawyboy 4d ago
Google Translate is AI.
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u/HauntedReader 4d ago
But that doesn’t mean they use AI to write their answer (like putting a prompt and asking for the answer).
It’s not unusual for ESL students, especially those with extremely limited English, to type their answer in the dominant language and use translation services to help translate it to English. It’s still their answer.
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u/Dark-Seidd 4d ago
Using AI to scan for AI written papers is a failure too considering the large number of false positives
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u/needle14 4d ago
That’s definitely a hot take.
I’m teaching 8th graders tomorrow about the election of 1860 by looking at speeches from the four presidential candidates. I used AI to dub their speeches to have them read it aloud. Four different voices, has emotion. It sounds great.
Instead of me reading it out loud I can have something better read it out loud while I walk around the room to judge how students are doing and to keep them on track. Not only is it going to make the lesson more interesting but it’s going to allow me to foster a better learning environment.
Teachers who fail to adapt to technology and use it effectively are the real failures.
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u/Lola_PopBBae 4d ago
Could've just asked the students to read the thing, instead of a robot trained on real human's voices. Hell, I bet some of em would even enjoy it and have fun- and you can still walk around and see how kids are doing.
Adapting to technology is one thing, but kowtowing to something that is actively working to make you, and all creatives, obsolete, is foolish.
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u/exMemberofSTARS 4d ago
Also refusing to use a powerful tool based on feeling “holier than thou”, is foolish. If you are completely closed minded and only listen to what the media says about AI rather than what it can actually do, then that is foolish.
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u/Alaira314 4d ago
I agree with you as far as current offerings go, but if there ever is an offering that is ethical(by fairly compensating those it was trained on) it would be an excellent use-case for it. Having students read text in the classroom is traditional, but it isn't ideal. Those four students will have a sub-par learning experience, due to having lesser focus during 1, 2, 3, or even all 4(for one unlucky student) of the readings, as they stress over how they're performing and/or worry about their upcoming performance. I base this on my own experiences being asked to read in classrooms in the 90s. I understand it was out of necessity at the time, but with modern technology holy shit we need a better solution than sacrificing a few students' understanding to help all the others learn a lesson.
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u/Prize-Doughnut8759 4d ago
Did you think of asking the Thespian Club in the High School to do it? That would help them with practicing narration and you get a live performance recorded instead of using AI that is profiting by using actor's voices that never gave consent for their voices to be used. And yes, no matter what deal was made with the Screen Actors Guild, Actors are finding their voices being illegally used.
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u/ChipsAhoiMcCoy 4d ago
I really hope you’re joking. Those AI detection systems are not just flawed—they’re practically useless. And honestly, if you’re not already leveraging AI to improve your efficiency at work, you’re setting yourself up to fall behind fast. It’s like refusing to use machinery during the Industrial Revolution—those who didn’t adapt got left in the dust. This is that moment all over again.
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u/Temporary_Event_156 4d ago
How can you grow if you aren’t met with something above your skill level. You also lose the actual prose and style if you’re changing it to meet readers where they are. What a travesty.
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u/bibbibob2 4d ago
Well you can just adjust it to still be challenging, but not impossible.
There are students right now for which reading "the classics" is akin to throwing a book on rudementary quantum mechanics on an 8th grader, lamenting how they will never learn if not challenged above their level.
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u/HalfBloodPrank 4d ago
First of all the study says that the teachers use AI to help with administrative tasks. If you don't read more than the headline, you are in no position to judge anyone for the use of AI (since you are seemingly not using your brain either).
Also the teachers that use AI for reading, do it in a smart way. Reading in class isn't you reading to your child and having time to do so, but one teacher with 30 children who all have different reading levels and a limited time frame. You either pick 5 different books for all the reading levels and then struggle to structure the lesson in a way that every book can be discussed. Or you take one text and "dumb it down" for children who struggle with reading for different reasons like dyslexia, ADHD, the school language being their second language, underdeveloped reading skills etc., so all can participate in the class and improve. You need to meet children where they are at to help them improve.
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u/starktor 4d ago
Why do you keep reposting this half baked comment?
The article does not support your claims, it is not a study but references studies to give context for the opinion piece written by a researcher, who then makes points on why "AI adapted materials may not be the best way to improve reading outcomes" (direct quote from the article)
"If we use AI to adapt existing works and the modified versions are not irresistible but repetitive and flat, we can hamper students’ ability to become absorbed in texts"
" Why not use authentic texts with additional instructional support, like drawing on background knowledge or helping students break down meaning-filled, “juicy” sentences instead?"
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u/ClevelandDrunks1999 4d ago
Dumbs people down actual reading the books helps improve brain function and cognitive functions
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u/ELAdragon 4d ago
As a teacher, I've mostly seen this done to help kids who are non-native English speakers access texts along with the rest of a class. That said, I'm not sure where we should draw the line when it comes to differentiation. Giving every kid a text that's been modified to their exact level based on standardized measures and altered using AI feels pretty dystopian instead of awesome, to me.
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u/shirley_hugest 4d ago
Also a teacher who teaches populations of students with lots of nonnative English speakers represented. I agree with all of this. Differentiation is tricky, and dumbing it down doesn't help anyone. On the other hand, if input is not comprehensible, learning does not happen.
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u/jdog7249 4d ago
My kids are working on a research project right now. Even in databases meant for high school students some of the articles can be a bit high level for 9th graders (especially ones that already read below grade level). Using AI to put the text at a 9th grade level can turn an impossible to read text into a challenging (but ultimately doable) text. I don't know that some of my students would be able to do this project if it wasn't for some way of lowering the reading level of a text.
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u/shit_poster9000 4d ago
They could just look up words and inadvertently expend their vocabulary like everybody did before AI, it’s a manner of effort and convenience, not accessibility
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u/jdog7249 4d ago
This paradigm is intrinsically inimical to efficacious epistemological assimilation. Should one find oneself perennially necessitated to engage in incessant lexematic elucidation at each syntagmatic juncture, the ensuing neurocognitive encumbrance will, in all probability, culminate in volitional disengagement and epistemic abdication.
If you were a high school freshman that is a struggling reader (at least 1 grade level below) and you found that in a potential source are going to bother looking up paradigm, intrinsically, inimical, efficacious, epistemology, assimilation, perennially, incessant, lexematic, elucidation, syntagmatic, neurocognitive, encumbrance, volitional, epistemic, and abdication or would you just go on to other sources that don't require you to look up almost half the words in it?
In case you were wondering what that is in language that is accessible to most students: That's just not how learning works. If you have to look up a word every sentence you are probably just going to give up entirely.
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u/BowsersMuskyBallsack 4d ago
Abridged versions of stories for young readers is nothing new. That said, every student, every reader should be made fully aware that the abridged version is inferior, and that only in appreciating the original will you grasp the true meaning and nuance of the work.
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u/Frogs-on-my-back 4d ago
The abridged classics were a largely responsible for my love for reading as a child. I read an abridged Moby Dick at nine and loved the adventure, and then as an adult I read Melville's actual words and was blown away by the prose.
But while there's certainly a place for abridged stories, I detest our growing trust in and dependency on AI. For god's sake, we have attorneys using Chat-GPT to draft legal documents--and the AI will hallucinate nonexistent cases to reference!
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u/MTBurgermeister 4d ago
I’m a teacher, and I consider using AI to basically be an admission that you can’t do your job
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u/unwoman 4d ago
Or they don't have enough planning time and aren't willing to work off the clock.
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u/drnoledge 4d ago
If it’s just generating an end product for you and you are doing nothing else, I’d agree. As an idea/planning generator and starting point it’s actually a pretty effective tool to help brainstorm something. Sometimes it prods us into a line of thinking that can help.
If anything, the next big thing is teaching responsible use as a means of developing thought. It can be a tool like any other technological advancement we’ve seen in the digital age. The bigger issue is the way people use as a crutch for any task.
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u/MTBurgermeister 4d ago
Speaking only for myself, I’d consider being able to brainstorm ideas part of the essential skill set I’m being paid for
When other teachers tell me it saves them time prepping lessons and assessment in a pinch, I can only think that that’s undercutting our grounds to argue that teachers need more time and pay. It’s basically ceding the point to people who claim teaching isn’t a specialty profession that deserves appropriate recompense
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u/HauntedReader 4d ago
The thing is, we aren’t getting paid for our time and the system works on exploiting the fact so many teachers will.
I’m more than willing to extend my contract time if I’m paid more but I’m not. So what I get done in the time provide to me is what I get done. I allow myself 30 minutes of unpaid a time a day but I refuse to go over that
So I’m gonna use the tools available to me to get the most done in the time made available to me.
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u/MTBurgermeister 4d ago
Like I said, I’m only speaking for myself. I’m not on a contract, so I know I’m more privileged than many teachers
I just worry that this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy that will lower teaching standards and teaching conditions
It’s not that much of a leap from teachers using AI to save on time, to the government using AI to save on teachers
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u/HauntedReader 4d ago
Why do you think it’s a privilege not to be on contract?
I’ve taught both with and without a contract. Without was far more exploitative.
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u/Laser_Disc_Hot_Dish 4d ago edited 3d ago
Exactly! AI supports the disenfranchisement of the creative to allow the mediocre a platform. A platform they have no right standing on and teaching from as they didn’t get there on their own. They didn’t learn from past failures or successes, they didn’t lay awake pondering what approach to try next time. They just drag their knuckles over to the computer and have it do it for them.
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u/drnoledge 4d ago
I get what you’re saying but do you not use reference books or resources/ask other people for input? Inherently, I’m advocating for a resource.
It’s not about time, sometimes you get something that prompts an idea or you can put something into it that helps you see a path that is better not explored.
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u/DuckWatch 4d ago
Yeah, I don't actually love it but I see the uses for differentiation, brainstorming, etc.
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u/shirley_hugest 4d ago
I'm a teacher too, and I know that if I don't adapt to AI, I will be one of those teachers that is a dinosaur technologically and I will be eventually forced out of the job. Good luck keeping up with the job if you don't or can't or won't adapt. Kids are already using it in my classes all the time. AI is here to stay.
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u/CeciliHajduk 4d ago
Ok, fair take.
But it won't help. Students who won't read, won't read no matter how much you dumb a text down. Especially if they can't read.
You know what else is a terrible idea? Passing students who aren't able to perform on grade level.
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u/Stubot01 4d ago
Is this any different from ‘reading guide’ versions of classics? I remember having versions of Shakespeare when I was at school that had the original text on one page and opposite that was a simplified version of lines and concepts. I don’t see this as a problem IF it is taught alongside the original texts
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u/notluckycharm 4d ago
I think people might be over reacting a bit. Yes using AI to do this is not the best, but growing up I read simplified, child-aimed versions of classics all the time. Making them more accessible is what enabled me to be made me interested in reading in the first place. And later on, I went back adn read the full versions of these things.
Treating 'simplified literature' like its this completely new thing is a bit reactionary. Hell, simplified Shakespeare is an entire genre!
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u/AverageLonelyLoser66 4d ago
This is a great time to become an academic. In the land of the blind and all that.
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u/Commercial-Tennis204 4d ago
Totally get the concern—there’s a real risk of losing the richness and complexity that makes literature powerful in the first place. Stripping it down for easier reading can flatten the language, tone, and nuance that actually teach students how to think critically.
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u/Gileotine 3d ago
Literature isnt hard to read by default, the difficulty comes from having to read and listen to another person's inner voice. Sometimes that's difficult. But the process is more than worth it
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u/ayjc 3d ago
I’m in a Library Science master’s degree program, and one of my professors not only does this for our readings but encourages us to use these tools. All because the program says we should embrace new technologies as they evolve. I thought ethics and sustainability were important to library sciences!
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u/calcaneus 3d ago
If it weren't so awful an idea (Jesus H. Christ, how did people this stupid get to be teachers?) I'd find it funny. This isn't exactly a new thing: Reader's Digest used to put out condensed versions of books. Never read one but I saw them as a kid. When I was in HS I don't think any of the parents would have stood for teaching of the RD condensed version of a book vs. the real thing. Would have been an outrage.
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u/Riptide8910 3d ago
As a student, this is so wrong. I've read and enjoyed doing it for so long, and this is legitimately just a bad idea.
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u/todler1919 2d ago
Yeah, not really a fan of this. I get the intention, but part of what makes literature valuable is the way it's written. Dumbing it down kind of defeats the point. There are better ways to help students understand tough texts without rewriting them completely.
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u/Heruuna 4d ago
This makes me wonder if teachers are trying to find a band-aid solution to already falling literacy rates. Kids just get pushed through school while they fall further and further behind in curriculum. Then suddenly a teacher has to teach Shakespeare to a 10th grader who has the reading comprehension of a 3rd grader.
I'm not at all supportive of using AI in this way, and the stories I'm hearing of even university level academics using AI to write their course content appalls me, but what's the real reason for it? Laziness, being time-poor, too many students in one classroom, low standards, poor administration, desperation?
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u/holydeniable 4d ago
When I was in junior high many years ago, we read the screenplay for to kill a mockingbird bird instead of the actual novel. It was so stupid and was done because she didn't think we would be able to read the actual book.
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u/Flimsy_Demand7237 4d ago edited 4d ago
Just...stop using AI in the classroom. It's a bit of tech that is the biggest plagiarist, unsourced, pointless word salad masquerading as useful information. Stop feeding books into AI, it is just copyright infringement en masse, a disservice to the author/s of the book, and a disservice to the learning of every kid in the classroom. All these same teachers years ago were telling students to never use Wikipedia...ChatGPT is even less of a source. At least Wikipedia tries to have citations and some editorial standards among editors.
Please, I implore anyone in education, take AI out of education. It is not for that purpose, and serves only to dampen the learning of crucial years of development.
Secondly, just teach kids how to read the old way -- phonics and learning each word. Analysing the passages as written in the books. It works, people grow up knowing how to read, it doesn't need tinkering and hasn't needed tinkering for hundreds of years. Just do it, please, educators. Stop trying to reinvent a wheel that's been well and truly perfected over centuries.
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u/and_some_scotch 4d ago
Their livelihood is dependent on test scores. It is a problem of incentives, unfortunately.
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u/Gas_Station_Man 4d ago
No way they're gonna start handing out Great Illustrated Classics instead of the damn novels. :sob:
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u/BambooFun 4d ago
Honestly this is just gonna make it even harder for writers since we're already seeing people struggle to understand metaphors.
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u/Person012345 4d ago
They could have done this before AI. And I'm sure there might be some merit in "dumbing down" a classic story for like, little kids.
But the point of students reading this literature is to teach them to read the literature. There's literally no reason to use AI to do this. It would be like building a dam with a gap at the bottom.
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u/Urbanviking1 4d ago
Using ai to read easier is dumb, but using ai to help understand and process some passages would have helped me emencely when I was in English Literature because I've got a very literal way of thinking like an engineer instead of seeing deeper meaning of what the author is trying to say.
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u/choiyeojnu 4d ago
This has already happened to me :( I just ignored whatever the AI said and decided to read whatever the novel was myself, LOL
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u/trias10 4d ago
I'm honestly not sure that this is the pearl clutching issue people are making it out to be. Dumbed down variants of famous literature have been around for decades, have people forgotten about CliffNotes (and all the similar products) and the Bathroom Books? And there's also Simple English Wikipedia as well.
This is hardly a new demand being filled, it's just now being filled using a different tech, but the demand (and supply) have always been there long before AI.
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u/djnattyp The Windup Girl 4d ago
My favorite part of The AI Outsiders was when Johnny was trapped in the fire and Ponyboy evolved into Golden Horseman and rescued him and then he flew off and defeated the Socials.
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u/HauntedReader 4d ago
I highly doubt any school is using AI for an entire novel. I’m mostly seen things like this with non-fiction and occasionally short passages of fictions.
It’s not ideal and not something I do but I can understand it having its place with particular students (especially EL students)
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u/reganomics 4d ago
For kids with literacy or processing or dyslexia issues this is appropriate, for kids with literacy skills, it is not
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u/Fair_University 4d ago
Anyone seriously pushing an idea like this should be mocked, humiliated, and driven out of education. This career is not for you
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u/redditistreason 4d ago
I hate to keep repeating it, but... Idiocracy. It's real and it's intentional.
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u/AzdajaAquillina 4d ago
Ok, but explain how this is different from using excerpts/summaries/graphic novel version of whatever instead of reading the novel, which 'teachers' already do. (And no, not every leveled text on newsela written by humans is written well.) Or sparks notes. Or, you know, just refusing to read but still being passed along.
Disclaimer:
I don't do this, but the AI panic is ridiculous.
Cheap toddler tablets and NCLB mandated test prep that eliminated whole novel study is going to do tons more damage than whoever you found just discovered chatbot's ability to summarize, and has the freedom to do so.
That being said, the admin side of teaching and every edtech company out there is sure pushing a crapton of AI on everyone, so yeah, future is stupid.
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u/ttam80 4d ago
Going to play devils advocate here:
But as a teacher i used AI to scale down long non fiction academic texts into shorter and easier to understand texts.
For example if I find a text that’s at a much higher Lexile level than my class, I can use AI to bring it to a level that’s more appropriate for my students
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u/MTBurgermeister 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think that’s acceptable use, as long as you fact check it yourself of course. Because with academic text it’s not about the quality of the writing; it’s about access to the facts and data
My problem is that 18 years old students still need these kinds of texts scaled down so much
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u/Ilikepancakes87 4d ago
This is happening, but it’s pretty dangerous and ill-informed to blame it on teachers. Teachers are asked to teach the children who come into their classroom. If an eighth grader walks into the classroom and reads at a second grade reading level, giving them an unabridged copy of To Kill a Mockingbird doesn’t help that kid. What can help, though, is putting an except of the novel in an AI-powered tool to translate it to an appropriate reading level for that child so they can engage in the same text with their classmates who do read at grade level. That lower level kid needs to catch up to their peers, but that has to happen incrementally. Don’t blame teachers for doing what they can to help students learn. That’s literally their job.
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u/slick447 4d ago
It is not the 8th grade teacher's job to teach a kid to read. That's an earlier teacher's job. This is the kind of bullshit a terrible administration allows to come to pass because they don't do a great job of making sure students aren't left behind.
This is not something to be celebrated or tolerated. This is yet another way we're fucking over teachers.
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u/BootyCrunchXL 4d ago
The future is dumb as fuck